moving and water change

steamboatwv · 10-12-2007, 02:04 PM

we will be moving into out new house in 2 days, will try to be moving the tank tomorrow, my question is how much water can be changed "the most" to clean up the water as best as can for the change over without causing a spike that i have to deal with. dont want another cycle at the moment to deal with along with the move.

Loverotties · 10-12-2007, 02:13 PM

If your talking about a reef tank it's more important about the rock.If you take it out of the tank then the rock won't go back the same way(exsposing new part of rock) which can cause a cycle.If it's a FO then you can change 50%.

steamboatwv · 10-12-2007, 02:16 PM

it is a reef tank, so just moving the rocks around will cause a cycle?? and that means as far as the water goes I can change any amount of it?? I was thinking about doing a 50 to 75 percent water change if it wasnt going to hurt anything so I dont have to carry so much of the water over to the new house, but if just moving the rocks around causes a cycle then will that hurt the corals I have?? I really dont want to change any more water than need be to keep from hurting the corals. cant afford that

bosscrab · 10-12-2007, 05:52 PM

Yes exposing pieces rock that wasn't exposed before will cause a cycle. I recently got some new corals that were attached to a few huge chunks and had to do a bit of aquascaping and ended up w/a diatom bloom.
What corals are you keeping?
I would change more that 30-35%. Thats just me though.

Kevin1000 · 10-12-2007, 07:34 PM

My 02

Major water changes are no big deal - just make sure you have matched the water temperature and that the new batch of water has had a chance to "mature" which insure's the salt is disolved and that the it has aerated enough for the PH to stabilize.

While changing water pre move may have some beneficial impact - having a mature batch of salt water ready after you make the move may be more important.

Fly Guy · 10-12-2007, 07:40 PM

you can change all of it if you like(and i probably would) but like kevin said...just do be more careful than usual about getting your params where they need to be and have it ready well in time

AS you take the rock out that has been touching the sandbed from the old tank, give it a good rinse in the tankwater. This will minimize any cycling that will happen as a result of digging it out of the sand